The Odisha High Court on Friday dismissed a petition of Minister Sanjay Dasburma, who had pleaded not to entertain and to reject at the threshold an election petition challenging his election to the State Assembly.
Congress leader lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra, who lost to Dasburma by a slender margin of 1,341 votes in the April 2014 elections from Brahmagiri, has moved the High Court in an election dispute urging the court to declare the election of the BJD candidate as void on the ground that the poll processes were completely vitiated.
In response to a notice, Dasburma, however, had moved a miscellaneous petition for dismissal of the election petition at the threshold without delving into the merits of the case.
Rejecting Dasburma’s contentions, Justice Shatrughna Pujahari observed that the dispute raised by Mohapatra clearly makes out a case and is required to be decided on merits, said the Congress leader’s counsel Pitambar Acharya.
“In a 22-page judgment, the High Court while dismissing the petition of Dasburma has clearly observed that the petition of Mohapatra does not suffer from any defects,” said Acharya, adding that trial of Mohapatra’s original petition would now continue in the court.
Mohapatra has alleged that the poll processes in Brahmagiri were completely vitiated due to nonobservance of the provisions of the Representation of Peoples Act-1951, Conduct of Election Rules-1961 and instructions and guidelines issued by the Election Commission for a free and fair election.
He has further alleged that large-scale booth capturing and rigging of votes were adopted by the BJD candidate to win the election.